Endangered species

I started off my day with a breakfast of bland tiny pineapples (and stale but uncooked French toast – or is patriot toast), which is poignant because I am here to work on developing a proposal for the agricultural sector. I spoke to the manager of an Ethiopian agribusiness who told me that a farmer here wants to plant 50 hectares of pineapples here but he can't get the plant material to do so. I just wander where he would find a market if this is the standard Ethiopian pineapple!

I had my first day in the office. I was a bit nervous heading in as there are lots of sorts of about the Chief of Party floating around. Fortunately, I found that most of them were untrue. Well, at the very least, we get along very well and he was very helpful. I spent a busy day setting up meetings and going to meetings.

I ended the day on a high note. One of the hardest things to find in Africa is data. Real live spreadsheets that are filled with accurate numbers are an endangered species. Today I had a sighting…in fact, I caught a big one. By a stroke of luck, the project here put me in touch with someone in the statistics office who not only provided me with all the data that I needed, but he had it ready to load on my memory stick when I arrived! Truly a unique experience.